New 2007 Vectrix

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Zoe-M
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New 2007 Vectrix

Hello,

I just bought a 2007 Vectrix from a scooter dealer for $5000. I had looked at the Vectrix before but it was always out of my price range so when I saw it at this price I jumped on it. The Vectrix is very fun to ride and I'm getting about 30 miles per charge but after reading all the posts here don't know if I made the right choice. I'm not really into replacing batteries or doing modifications, do you think this is not a good scooter for someone like me?

Thanks,

- Zoe

yamez4u
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Drive it like you want. My Vectrix has been more trouble free with less maintenance then any vehicle I have ever owned. The only reason I would take a wrench to mine would be to get better range!

israndy
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Despite all the problems I have had with the V, I was at the drug store last night and went to get back on the bike and the guy near me starting up his bike was doing the Chug chug chug, roar, clunk! Chug chug chug roar, rar, RAAARRR, clunk, and I thought, "I can limp home if I have to, but he is stuck if he can't get it started." BOY I don't miss those days.

I am mostly noisy about my bike because, like you, I got my 2007 new for $5000 less than two years ago and I would like the warranty period honored, even if I don't pay anything like full price.

Did finally get ahold of Dana at Vectrix service this morning and he directed me to the two newly setup Vectrix repair shops in the bay area to get my bike looked at. Hope he is right as I am getting close to the end of my warranty...

Just waiting for Scuderia West in SF or Rockridge Two Wheels in Berkeley to open this AM.

-Randy

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I also own a 2018 Tesla Model 3 and a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiev

Caruso
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Welcome Zoe,

I'm in a similar situation, got mine 2 weeks ago and having read various posts on here am now permanently worried about the state of my battery! I don't care if the range meter is properly calibrated, just so long as my battery doesn't go bad. So my strategy is to avoid running the battery below 4 bars - which is easy with my regular commute.

I still really enjoy riding the V very much having come from a 250cc Vespa.

Dan

oobflyer
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Cross your fingers!

I bought a 2007 VX-1 in 2008. Apparently the battery pack hadn't been taken care of during the year that it was sitting in the dealership because the battery pack was no good. I took the bike back right away and they replaced the pack (under warranty). I then got around 8,000 miles trouble-free on it before some of the cells became weak (or died). The range dropped by about 25%, but otherwise it still runs fine.

I decided that it would be worth the cost of the upgrade to the Li-ion batteries (especially now with the high gas prices). I'll be ordering the conversion kit from 'antiscab' as soon as it's available (I've already ordered the batteries).

Meanwhile - as long as you're getting 30 miles per charge it sounds like your pack is OK. Just enjoy the ride!

HarryS
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Keep in mind that there are hundreds of users that have nevers posted here. We have no clue how their bikes are doing. I agree with the previous posts, just enjoy. The only thing to really really watch is battery temperature particularly in the summer. Keep it below 35C at all cost. Use many hours of charging delay, charge at night. I live in hot Alabama. I charge at 2am in the morning. When I get to work and the bike shows over 28C I plug her in with the delay set to 4h and a timer cutting it off after 2h. This way I get two hours of early morning cool air to cool the battery. Drive home at night, battery is at 30C by the time I arrive, sometimes as high as 35 in August. He'll, that's our ambient temperatu during the day, what can you do?. Then is use 6 h of recharge delay so it starts the charging in the early am. By the time I leave the next morning the battery is at 25C. Distance between charges about 34miles. Then once each week or at least once every other I run the bike until the red light comes on which is at about 38 to 39 miles. This way the range display stays nicely calibrated to the battery. Mind you this is my second battery which was replaced at 7000 miles after it failed.

oobflyer
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Did you also buy your '07 Vectrix new? Interesting - has Vectrix been storing these things for four years?

Zoe-M
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Thanks everyone, I'll just hope for the best. I guess the scooter was just at the dealer for a long time.

antiscab
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Did you also buy your '07 Vectrix new? Interesting - has Vectrix been storing these things for four years?

some of the batteries I have floating around have 2003 production dates stamped on them.
so yes, they've been sitting for a while, depending upon how old the bike is.

I think in 2008 there were newer batteries.

Matt

Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km

kingcharles
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

I bought a September 2007 model in December 2009. I am almost on 16000 km/10000 m.
The problems I had weren't battery related. A few months ago my range dropped and temperature went up but this was fixed with some software commands. So overall I am quite happy so far.

Once you go EV, Gas is history!

R
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

A few months ago my range dropped and temperature went up but this was fixed with some software commands.

Range drop + temperature increase is not related to battery damage???
Please, explain what software commands solved the problems, I'm really curious.
Mik
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

A few months ago my range dropped and temperature went up but this was fixed with some software commands.

Range drop + temperature increase is not related to battery damage???
Please, explain what software commands solved the problems, I'm really curious.

Most likely setting the battery capacity to a lower value. That prevents over-charging and reversing of weak cells in some circumstances and can be done by software.

This information may be used entirely at your own risk.

There is always a way if there is no other way!

kingcharles
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Most likely setting the battery capacity to a lower value. That prevents over-charging and reversing of weak cells in some circumstances and can be done by software.

Actually it was the opposite, my bike had reduced capacity probably due to winter riding in cold temperatures. But the bike still thought that I had 29Ah when they logged on to the software. I did 5000km this winter in temperatures between -14C and 0C, and the software probably does not notice that the batteries cannot store what is offered during charging thus reducing the capacity. (this is just my personal explanation for what happened)
But as I always ride the bike almost empty on my commute it was beginning to show the red light earlier and earlier and the battery got warm because of the low voltages (30+C when outside temperature was between 0 and 5C)

I thought the range would come back with warmer weather but it didn't, so I called the local importer (Escini) to come and check it out as I am still under warranty.

So they did a force 30Ah command and I drove it down to the red light twice and my range was back. Now I don't see the red light any more on my daily commutes and the temperature is normal again. Range is same as when I just got the bike again and full power for more bars.

Will keep an eye on this next winter :-)

Once you go EV, Gas is history!

israndy
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Actually it was the opposite, my bike had reduced capacity probably due to winter riding in cold temperatures.

So they did a force 30Ah command and I drove it down to the red light twice and my range was back.

What? Huh? Who? How do you do that? I wanna get my range back!

-Randy

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R
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

So they did a force 30Ah command and I drove it down to the red light twice and my range was back. Now I don't see the red light any more on my daily commutes and the temperature is normal again. Range is same as when I just got the bike again and full power for more bars.

I really hate the vectrix guy who programmed the charger's firmware...
HarryS
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

What an interesting story. In general I think the force 30ah feature is a bit dangerous on anything but a perfect battery. The procedure forces 30ah into the battery at any cost, often having the CP charge followed by 3 attempts of additional 11a charge separated by cooling periods of 15 minutes. Then a full CC charge followed by an EQ charge. At the end after about 9 hours the battery is pretty hot. It will repeat the forced 30ah charge for the ensuring 2 or3 charges as well. Any battery with weak cells will be weakened further. Obviously it worked out for you. Interestingly, when I had a new battery installed chose not to force a 30ah capacity but left it to the electronics to gradually adjust.

kingcharles
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

my battery did not get any warmer than before during those charges so I guess damage was minimal.
I would have preferred to stay below the maximum battery usage also but the problem was that with strong headwind I could only just make it to the office or home. I was already looking for lower speed/shorter routes.
Now I have full power during my complete commute and no more red lights. So I am happy with the result.

Once you go EV, Gas is history!

HarryS
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

My note was simply a word of caution for others who have access to the software and who may rush to force their battery to a capacity that it simply does not have. A better approach would be to force a battery capacity measurement through the softwar. here the bike will go through an EQ charge cycle and then you drive it down to the red light. It will then have calculated the actual capacity of your battery and work with this new value, which is also displayed in the software.

israndy
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

So in this mode the battery is calibrated, and I can understand if you ran the battery ALL the way down, but how does it know about the new battery capacity? What causes the red light to come on? Is it a voltage sensing thing?

-Randy

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I also own a 2018 Tesla Model 3 and a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiev

HarryS
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

The red light comes on when the battery cannot sustain a 30ah current draw for a few seconds. This typically happens around a voltage of 123V or below. I have seen it happen at 120V. The software will know at the end of the full discharge how many Ah have been removed from the battery that had just been fully charged and equalized. This will be the new actual value on which the charge parameters will be based on, I.e. It will terminate the CP charge earlier than 30Ah if it has a Lowe capacity. On A 30ah battery the CP charge takes 2:50h on a 25ah battery it will be about 2:20h. Also, the battery indicator will use this new value with each tick coming of more quickly, I.e. 2miles or less rather than 2.4.

Aircon
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

The red light comes on when the battery cannot sustain a 30ah current draw for a few seconds. This typically happens around a voltage of 123V or below. I have seen it happen at 120V. The software will know at the end of the full discharge how many Ah have been removed from the battery that had just been fully charged and equalized. This will be the new actual value on which the charge parameters will be based on, I.e. It will terminate the CP charge earlier than 30Ah if it has a Lowe capacity. On A 30ah battery the CP charge takes 2:50h on a 25ah battery it will be about 2:20h. Also, the battery indicator will use this new value with each tick coming of more quickly, I.e. 2miles or less rather than 2.4.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is part of the reason I thought I'd lost some range. You discharge to red light and charge it up and couple of times when new, as per Vectrix recommendation.

but since I've learnt how to check the voltage I noticed that the full final charge was getting lower and lower voltage....until recently I ran it down to the red light a couple of times, which I hadn't done for quite a while....which leads me to a question.

If I fully charge it (it ends up at about 145-147v give or take) and then don't ride it for a couple of days, it's self discharged to 139v or so, but I have a feeling that the bike thinks it's still fully charged. SO, you go for a ride and then the next time it charges to 3 or 4 volts less. Does the charging process work on the amount of energy taken from the battery during riding or does it actually use some logic along the lines of "ok....it's down to 130v....now let's go back to 150v" To me, it doesn't seem to do the latter, and I just don't get that. If, on the other hand, it's always meant to charge to the 150 or so volts, then I have some other problem, because it does that initially after red light and a few times after, but slowly reduces it's full charge. Also, if i fully charge but leave for a few days and it's dropped to 139v, it won't charge...it starts the charging process, but doesn't go for very long and I end up with still the 139v.

I'm not even sure if I'm making sense!

I just get the feeling that plugging it in after every ride is reducing the final charge voltage and then the range as well.

antiscab
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

The red light comes on when the battery cannot sustain a 30ah current draw for a few seconds. This typically happens around a voltage of 123V or below. I have seen it happen at 120V.

I have seen it happen with no load pack voltage around 114V (well balanced battery).

The condition for red battery light is less than 115v while loaded below 5200W for 10 seconds.

on old software, the red battery light would also be on whenever the MC was operating at low voltage limit, however, this would no reset the capacity count.
The old software also didn't have any mechanism for compensating for reduced capacity batteries IIRC.

you can get this condition with a battery full of discharged cells
you are more likely to get this when most cells are mostly discharged, and a few more have reversed

nearly impossible to tell the difference between the two, unless a cell or two have failed badly.

since I've learnt how to check the voltage I noticed that the full final charge was getting lower and lower voltage

*snip*

If I fully charge it (it ends up at about 145-147v give or take) and then don't ride it for a couple of days, it's self discharged to 139v or so, but I have a feeling that the bike thinks it's still fully charged.

The bike takes into account the discharge from the MC and Charger (7mA).
but it ignores the batteries self discharge.

so yes, the bike does still think its fully charged.

on the next charge cycle it will put back in what was taken out on your ride, plus 3Ah.

the extra 3Ah helps correct for the batteries self discharge, but won't get the SOC above ~80% unless you do it several times a day.

If you know that you need to go on a ride that will probably use most of your capacity, you could do a ride to red battery light.
then time the end of charge to coincide with the start of your ride (basically start charging 3 hours before).
its about the only way to guarantee you will get the full capacity the cells are capable of.

Matt

Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km

Fergus
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2007 Vectrix For Sale for only $1,999

I also bought a 2007 Vectrix brand new last year (March 2010 - It's all grey with black seats and looks amazing at night with the blue lit gage) and over the colder winter months (December - February)did not ride my bike and so when it finally became warmer out I got excited and wanted to ride to find out that the battery had gone flat and the when I plugged the bike in, the bike did not charge. I am currently in contact with someone at Vectrix to help me get my bike charged. The bike has less then 400 miles on it and I am looking to sell it for only $1,999 (Really can't go any lower or I might as well keep it) if anyone may be interested? Maybe they can flip the bike and sell it for more or get some use out of it then sell it at a later date. There is really nothing wrong with the bike physically and hate to sell it but am currently driving a 1999 Ford Explorer which just went over 100,000 miles and am looking to trade it in for a new vehicle which would mean I would have to sell my Vectrix as well. If you may know anyone that may be interested please let me know. It's a great deal for someone who just wants to ride it around every once in a while or sell it to someone else for more, I just don't have the time to wait for a buyer and would like to use the money towards a down payment for another vehicle.

My direct e-mail is FergusHorner [at] yahoo.com if you may know someone who is interested or would like to purchase it yourself. I live in Charlotte, NC

turok
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Re: 2007 Vectrix For Sale for only $1,999

Damn,

a Vectrix @ $1999 with 400 miles..

If someone offered me this in (or around) Belgium, I'd already be on my way to pick it up.

"doing nothin = doing nothing wrong" is invalid when the subject is environment

Fergus
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Re: 2007 Vectrix For Sale for only $1,999

Good morning Turok,

Yeah I love this bike and someone from Vectrix actually drove over yesterday to look at my bike, update the software and made sure it would hold a charge so it's working great right now! Also, I mentioned 400 miles when it was actually a little over 300k which when converted is 192 US Miles so it's almost brand new! I may post it locally but hope I can sell it even though I will be taking a large loss!

R
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Re: 2007 Vectrix For Sale for only $1,999

A vectrix for less than 1500 Euros...What a pity you don't live in Europe...

kingcharles
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

It may even be worth while to import it!

Once you go EV, Gas is history!

2008 Silver Vec...
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

I also purchased my bike after the price came down to something more reasonable, $5,500 U.S. The bike was purchased in August 2009 brand new and with the new software. I believe having the new software installed will prolong your battery life considerably. I now have almost 5,000 trouble free miles with a similar 35 mile range.

From what I can gather on this website, if you have the new software and take care of the bike you should get around 10-15,000 miles before you need to replace the batteries. Temperature is key when taking care of these bikes. I do not use regenerative braking if it is near full or the temperature is hot. Also, always use the charger time delay before charging.

I still love my bike and wouldnt trade it for anything on the market right now even with all the battery management issues. It's quiet, comfortable, dependable, fast, and saves me money everytime I ride it.

Happy riding....

JJ in Hawaii

JJ

rossasaurus
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Re: New 2007 Vectrix

Hi Fergus,
I'm interested.
Who was it that came out from Vectrix? Do you have a name and phone number for them you could share?
Thanks,
R

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